Nashville, March 28, 2017– On Tuesday, Tennessee State Rep. Andy Holt (R-Dresden) took aim at what he called “fake news” concerning a recent report by Nashville News Channel 5’s Ben Hall which falsely insinuated Holt was trying to hide the fact that he refuses to pay illegally issued traffic camera citations.

“Hall’s report is literally the definition of fake news,” said Holt as he prepared to head into committee to present his traffic camera legislation. “There’s a very simple reason I refused to talk to Mr. Hall about my traffic camera tickets. He’s a known peddler of fake, biased news. It’s actually funny that he fell right into the trap by writing a misleading headline and creating a fake story because I wouldn’t talk to him. The truth is, I’m more than happy to talk about my unpaid traffic camera citations, and I have been very public about that. I welcome any real journalist to come in my office, sit down with me, and report on the real story.”

Holt laughed at Hall’s report, which heavily insinuated that the lawmaker’s legislation to fight what he considers to be unconstitutional and illegally operated traffic cameras was an effort to hide the lawmaker’s numerous traffic camera citations.

Screenshot of one of Holt’s viral video showing him publicly telling millions of people that he doesn’t pay traffic camera tickets and instead prefers to burn them.

“Mr. Hall asked multiple times why I was hiding my traffic camera citations. I’ll be honest, it was difficult not to laugh at him,” said Holt. “I’ve literally posted viral videos showing me burn traffic camera tickets, sending the companies monopoly money and so on. Millions of people have seen these videos across the world. Yet, Mr. Hall’s fake news story is that I’m trying to hide the fact that I don’t pay illegally issued traffic camera tickets? Everyone is laughing at the report. It’s similar to MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow’s ‘bombshell’ revelation that President Trump has paid tens of millions of dollars in taxes, which made her a laughingstock.”

Holt said it was a massive missed opportunity for the journalist to expose a very serious and corrupt operation.

“Mr. Hall really dropped the ball here. He let his hatred of conservative legislators lead his reporting, which is typical of biased yellow-journalism. Rather than exposing a massive, illegal operation where government has privatized police powers for profit. Mr. Hall chopped together a hilariously ineffective ‘investigative’ hit piece exposing what millions of people already know– Andy Holt refuses to pay illegally issued traffic camera citations. He’s a little late to the party, but I remember my first day,” said Holt.

Holt put out an open invitation to any and all serious investigative reporters who want to expose what he considers to be a massive abuse of power by private companies in bed with government lobbyists using law enforcement to make millions by violating the rights of Tennesseans in a policing for profit scheme.

“If any real journalists out there want to know why I have 10 unpaid traffic camera violations, and nothing has happened to my credit, drivers license, insurance costs, and so on, even though cities are knowingly lying to people by telling them there are serious repercussions for not paying the citations, they’re welcome to come to my office. I’ll spend as much time with them as they want and walk them through every last detail of the scheme that includes federal bribery charges, which include Tennessee officials, those same officials proudly, knowingly violating state law, and so on.